"Then What?"

"Then What?"

by The ZMan

"One of the critical questions in any strategy is “Then what?” This question must be asked with every proposed move and counter move. The question is both a reminder and an assumption that the other players will react to your move. Good strategy focuses on the range of possibilities to each move and is prepared for them. Bad strategy just assumes the move will work and good things will flow from it. This is often referred to as the lack of second-order thinking.

For the last five years this has been at the center of American politics. The regime has clearly lost the ability to ask, much less answer the question, “Then what?” The war in Ukraine is in its fourth year because no one in the West could bother to ask the question, much less answer it. President Trump now has himself in a terrible jam because no one on his team thought to ask this question when they were plotting the Pearl Harbor style sneak attack on Iran.

It does not appear that any of them asked the question when planning the operation against the Iranian bunker facilities. By the looks of it, they settled on this attack because they assumed it would satisfy the Israelis, satisfy the crazies in Washington screaming for blood and provide an off-ramp in the conflict. Signaling to Iran that it was a one-time thing was supposed to induce them back to the bargaining table or at least encourage them to seek a cease fire in the war.

The assumed answer to the magic question was all the good things the administration needs to happen in order to wriggle free from this trap. Perhaps sensing that it was not the magic bullet, they immediately started to beg China to pressure Iran into not closing the Strait of Hormuz. Presumably they asked the Russians to do the same thing, as the Iranian foreign minister is in Moscow this week. Closing the strait would bring the whole thing crashing down on Trump’s head.

While the Iranians are prepared to close the strait, they have not done so, but they continue to send missiles at Israel and Israel is firing back. It is clear that the Iranians are not going to come back to the bargaining table, and they have no intention of ending the war with Israel. Of course, Israel is now demanding more strikes because it was never about Iranian nukes for them. It was always about inducing the United States into a ground war to topple the Iranian government.

President Trump is justifiably getting savaged by his voters, but in fairness to him he now lives in a town that operates like Jonestown. Everyone worships Israel or at least pretends they worship Israel. It is beyond creepy to see everyone in Washington act like Israel is the god of the world. Some sort of mass psychosis has swept the ruling class where they are convinced that their purpose in life is to serve the needs of this flyspeck of a country halfway around the world.

That just makes the crisis worse for the Trump administration. Even if they can have a moment of clarity and see the danger, they are limited in their options. If they do no more than provide support for Israel, they remain entangled in a war of attrition, while the crazies scream for blood, holding the domestic agenda hostage. They cannot make a deal with Iran, as the Israel lobby will never permit it. The only way out is to end the Israel lobby and that means tanks in the streets.

That is the thing about the question at the start. It not only forces the person answering it to think about the possible reactions from the other players, but it forces them to think clearly about the other players. If the Trump people had a realistic understanding of Israel and the Israel lobby, they would know they are dealing with hostile aliens who look at the United States as a Walmart during a ghetto riot. They would know how to treat them as adversaries, rather than allies or clients.

The same can be said for the approach to Ukraine. That has been pushed off to the side, but the neocons have not gone away. As things reach a critical point in the war this autumn, they will be back to extort the Trump admin. Given the duplicity of the Republican Party, the big, beautiful bill will probably still be held hostage in the Senate come the autumn, so it will be another round of extortion in order to give the neocons what they want in the war against Russia.

In a way, the crisis engulfing the Trump administration in the realm of foreign policy is a microcosm of what faces America. The MAGA movement finally got their man into the White House with the clear support of the public. There is a team in place that can execute the domestic agenda. Then what? The answer so far has been a revolt in the judiciary against the Trump agenda, the Republican Party holding his legislative agenda hostage, and the usual suspects subverting his foreign policy.

Cancer does not leave the body just because the body voted to live. The cancer must be removed and that is the answer to the question, “Then what?” That appears to be impossible within the current rules, which brings us back to the question that seems to haunt this age. The current crisis is a gordian knot that cannot be untied within the rules of the system, so then what? For now, the Trump people do not have the answer, but the answer is there, just waiting its turn."

- https://thezman.com/

"Closing The Strait Of Hormuz Will Be A Nightmare Scenario For The Global Economy"

"Closing The Strait Of Hormuz Will Be A 

Nightmare Scenario For The Global Economy"

by Michael Snyder

"Our way of life depends on cheap energy. If you remove cheap energy from the equation, our society will be thrown into a state of chaos. The Iranians know that closing the Strait of Hormuz is one of the most powerful forms of leverage that they possess, because the world is deeply dependent on the oil that travels through that waterway. We don’t know exactly how this crisis will play out, because the Strait of Hormuz has never been closed in modern times. But as I pointed out earlier this month, we were warned that Israel would attack Iran, the global price of oil would rise, and the increase in the price of oil would be blamed on Israel. And that is precisely what has happened. Israel has attacked Iran, the global price of oil has been increasing, and many are blaming Israel for what has transpired. Unfortunately, the truth is that this crisis is just getting started.

On Sunday, it was being reported that the Iranian Parliament “has approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz”…"The Iranian Parliament has approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil choke point, after the United States bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, according to Iranian state media on Sunday. While the Parliament has voted in favor of closing the strait, the final decision rests with the country’s Supreme National Security Council, according to state media. Of course the Iranian Parliament never would have held this vote if the Supreme National Security Council had not already decided what it was going to do At a time when the regime is under threat, there is no way that we are going to be shown any signs of disunity among Iranian leaders.

So what does this mean? It means that the price of oil is going to go higher. A lot higher. JPMorgan is projecting that we could see the price of oil hit $130 a barrel in a “worst-case scenario”…"Investors predict a “knee-jerk” reaction, with oil prices expected to spike due to fears of disrupted Middle East supplies. Brent crude, already up 20% over the past month to $79.04, could climb toward $130 per barrel in a worst-case scenario, according to JPMorgan."

I agree that we could see the price of oil soon hit $130 a barrel. But if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for an extended period of time, it will go a lot higher than that. In a previous article, I warned that if the price of oil rises above $100 a barrel and stays there, it will immediately push the global economy into a recession. And I also warned that if the price of oil rises above $200 a barrel and stays there, it will immediately push the global economy into a depression. Yes, we really are facing a worldwide economic depression if this crisis is not resolved.

Because of how narrow it is, the Iranians can shut down the Strait of Hormuz quite easily…"The strait connecting the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf is one of the world’s most critical chokepoints - just 20 miles wide at its narrowest point. Shipping lanes in the strait - the area that is deep enough for ships to pass - are even narrower at less than two miles wide in each direction, making them much more vulnerable to attacks and threats of closure." The Iranians have been planning for such a scenario for many years, and they definitely have the resources to pull it off.

The reason why the Strait of Hormuz is so important is because approximately 20 percent of all global oil production travels through it…"About 20% of global oil and gas flow through the strait, which lies between Oman and Iran, and its closure could mean rising fuel prices for American consumers."

How will the world economy function when most oil exports from the Middle East are suddenly cut off? That is a very good question. It is being projected that economies in Asia will be hit the hardest…"The bulk of all oil exported by the regional petro giants, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, all travel through this narrow waterway. Asia is likely to bear the brunt most from any closures to the waterway, with China, India, Japan and South Korea all getting most of their oil imports through the strait."

Thankfully, the U.S. has become a lot less dependent on foreign oil in recent years. At this point we purchase “less than 3 percent of the oil coming out of the Persian Gulf”…"By contrast, the United States buys less than 3 percent of the oil coming out of the Persian Gulf, notably from northern Saudi Arabia. The United States became an overall net exporter of oil in 2020 as fracking technologies enabled a big increase in domestic oil production." But ultimately everyone will be affected because oil is a global commodity.

It will be fascinating to see how this crisis plays out. Even before the Iranian Parliament voted, one oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz suddenly reversed course once news broke that the U.S. had bombed Iran…

I don’t know if I even have the words to describe how serious this crisis could become. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is urging China to convince Iran to keep the Strait of Hormuz open…"U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called for China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important trade routes for crude oil in the world. “I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said in an interview on Fox News. China is Iran’s most important oil customer and maintains friendly relations with the Islamic Republic."

And he is also warning that the U.S. military could get involved if the Iranians really do shut it down…"US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a “suicide mission,” adding it would be a massive escalation that would merit a response from the US and others. He said: “If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It’s economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.”

Of course it would not be easy for the U.S. or any other major power to conduct an operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Any ships that enter the Strait of Hormuz would be sitting ducks for the Iranian missile launchers that have been dug deep into the cliffs that overlook the waterway.

Let me add another layer to all of this. A tremendous amount of fertilizer also travels through the Strait of Hormuz, and that has very serious implications. The following comes from a Zero Hedge article entitled “Global Fertilizer Market Thrown In Chaos After Mideast War Shutters Iran Urea Production”…“Iran was the third-largest urea exporter in 2024, according to StoneX, with export volumes of around 4.5 million tons – about the size of China’s. The country has a production capacity of around 8.9 million tons a year, Milam added, serving markets in Turkey, Brazil and Argentina, among others. It is also an exporter of ammonia.”

“In addition to knocking Iranian urea production offline, the attacks also brought Egypt’s operations to a standstill,” Ward reported. “Israel reduced its natural gas flows to the country on Friday, prompting Egypt to cease production.”

AgWeb’s Margy Eckelkamp reported that “Linville’s colleague at StoneX, Arlan Suderman, details why this conflict is being watched so carefully if the concern isn’t in those two countries’ production. ‘There’s a lot of other producers of fertilizer in the Middle East and a lot of it also passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which will be at risk going forward now,’ Suderman says. From a global supply standpoint, Suderman also points out the Ukrainian attack of one of Russia’s largest nitrogen fertilizer plants two weeks ago.”

Global fertilizer production was already being squeezed in a number of different ways even before Iran was attacked. If fertilizer exports are not allowed to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, that could trigger famines in many areas of the planet. Needless to say, famine is another one of the major themes that we have been anticipating.

We really are living in unprecedented times. Now that missiles are flying and bombs are being dropped, there will be no going back to the way that things were."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

"Moral compass?!" 

 Surely you jest., fool... This is 'Murica!'

Bill Bonner, "Lost Generations"

An oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz

"Lost Generations"

by Bill Bonner

"Bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran."

- John McCain

Youghal, Ireland - "Steve Bannon alerted his War Room audience on Saturday: ‘the party is on.’ Reuters: "Oil prices jumped on Monday to their highest since January as Washington's weekend move to join Israel in attacking Iran's nuclear facilities stoked supply worries. Brent crude futures rose $1.88 or 2.44% at $78.89 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude advanced $1.87 or 2.53% at $75.71."

Yes, the US is at war! CBS: "The president described the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as a "spectacular military success." He warned of "far greater" attacks if Iran does not "make peace." "There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days," Mr. Trump said. "Remember, there are many targets left."

Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany said that now “every dictator in the world is on notice.” Trump had sent them a “powerful message.” But it may not have been the message most Americans would want them to hear. The bombers say they are only trying to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But Iran had already agreed not to make a nuke. And it had gone along with diplomatic negotiations…rules…inspections…non-proliferation treaties — all intended to keep it from doing so.

But it got bombed anyway. The lesson is clear: The only way to protect yourself is to get nukes fast…and be ready to use them. Or, partner up with a credible nuclear protector - perhaps Russia or China.

Since WWII, there have been plenty of wars…but few victory parades. Korea, Vietnam, Honduras, Nicaragua, Grenada, Kuwait, Kosovo, etc. etc. Iraq, and Afghanistan. But Mr. Trump must have felt left out. He was the only US president in the 21st century who had not started a costly, pointless war. And who knows, maybe this one will turn out better than all the others. But ours is not to reason why. Ours is merely to get out of town while we still can. At least that’s what a lot of Americans are thinking. The Financial Times:

"A growing number of Americans are quietly assembling a contingent plan for life abroad in case the US becomes too uncomfortable. Home is where the heart is. But history tells us that there are good times to be somewhere else. The French in 1914…the Russians in 1917…Germans in 1933. The French suffered a “lost generation” in the Great War. More than one million young men were killed. Ten million Russians died in the Bolshevik Revolution and its aftermath; the other spent the next 70 years trapped in a sad, dreary place. And between WWII and the intentional murder of gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, and communists - the Germans lost eight million or so.

And now Americans are beginning to squirm. And wonder. Twice as many Americans as Chinese have applied for Portugal’s Golden Visas; are they twice as eager to leave home? Applications for passports from Ireland increased 60% in January and February. “The American professional classes” says Alastair Bonnett, quoted by the FT, are “joining the super-rich Chinese, Russians and others who have long sought an insurance policy against an unsympathetic government who might imprison them or seize their property.”

Your editor is, of course, way ahead on this trend - both personally and professionally. He began a magazine in 1979 - "International Living." Back then, we had no fear of the US government. Habeas corpus still protected Americans from their own government; today, merely having a tattoo may be enough to get you disappeared into a Central American prison. And if the feds wanted a war, they had to at least pretend to have a casus belli, such as the phony Tonkin Gulf incident. No more…politics and violence are on the rise; it’s the Primary Political Trend.

So far, we Americans probably have little to worry about. After all, the Iranians don’t have B-2 bombers! But people (including whole nations) go crazy from time to time. All you can do is to avoid getting caught up in the madness - either as a participant or a victim. The FT quotes a couple who recently moved to Panama: ‘It’s something we never thought we’d have to think about, let alone do. There’s a growing sadness about what is going on out there…’

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Are Sleeper Cells Ready to Strike? What You Must Do"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/23/25

"Are Sleeper Cells Ready to Strike? What You Must Do"

Are sleeper cells ready to strike? In today’s video, I cover the serious aftermath of recent events involving Iran, their nuclear facilities, and the ripple effects that could impact all of us. With heightened tensions globally, it's more important than ever to prepare and protect your family. From food storage to safety plans, I’ll share everything you need to know to stay ready for any situation. We talk about the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, Iran’s leadership, and the potential threats we face, including the activation of sleeper cells. This isn’t about fear - it’s about being informed and ready. I share personal stories, insights from experts, and tips on how to create a safety plan that works for you and your loved ones."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Judge Napolitano, "Alastair Crooke: Trump's Grave Miscalculations"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/23/25

"Alastair Crooke: Trump's Grave Miscalculations"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/23/25

"Ray McGovern: What President of Peace?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Larry C. Johnson: U.S. Attacks Iran, And Triggers Massive Response!"

Dialogue Works, 6/23/25

"Larry C. Johnson: U.S. Attacks Iran, 

And Triggers Massive Response!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Iran Hits Israel's Power Station, Yemen 'Chips In'; Israel Desperate To End War"

Full screen recommended.

Mahmood OD, 6/23/25

"Iran Hits Israel's Power Station, Yemen 'Chips In';

 Israel Desperate To End War"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "A Grand Deception: 'The Enemy' Is Not Overseas, It's Right Here"

Gregory Mannarino, 6/23/25

"A Grand Deception:

 'The Enemy' Is Not Overseas, It's Right Here"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Walmart"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 6/23/35

"Massive Price Increases At Walmart"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/23/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/23/25"

○

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

○

- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

○

Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

o

"Alert! Iran Has Emergency Meeting With Putin Before Retaliation Against U.S., Nukes 'On The Table'"

Prepper News, 6/22/25

"Alert! Iran Has Emergency Meeting With Putin

 Before Retaliation Against U.S., Nukes 'On The Table'"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Ominous Events Coming To America, We're On The Brink Of Global Chaos"

Jeremiah Babe. 6/22/25

"Ominous Events Coming To America, 

We're On The Brink Of Global Chaos"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Stillpoint"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Stillpoint"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Why doesn't the nearby galaxy create a gravitational lensing effect on the background galaxy? It does, but since both galaxies are so nearby, the angular shift is much smaller than the angular sizes of the galaxies themselves. The featured Hubble image of NGC 3314 shows two large spiral galaxies which happen to line up exactly. The foreground spiral NGC 3314a appears nearly face-on with its pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters. Against the glow of the background galaxy NGC 3314b, though, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust can also be seen tracing the nearer spiral's structure. Both galaxies appear on the edge of the Hydra Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster that is about 200 million light years away.

Gravitational lens distortions are much easier to see when the lensing galaxy is smaller and further away. Then, the background galaxy may even be distorted into a ring around the nearer. Fast gravitational lens flashes due to stars in the foreground galaxy momentarily magnifying the light from stars in the background galaxy might one day be visible in future observing campaigns with high-resolution telescopes."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

The Poet: Margaret Atwood, "The Moment"

"The Moment"

"The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming. 
We never belonged to you. 
You never found us.
It was always the other way round."

- Margaret Atwood
"Morning in the Burned House"

"Iran Closes Strait Of Hormuz? Iran’s BIG Revenge Move After U.S Bombs Nuclear Sites"

Full screen recommended.

Oneindia News, 6/22/25

"Iran Closes Strait Of Hormuz? 

Iran’s BIG Revenge Move After U.S Bombs Nuclear Sites"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

NDTV, 6/22/25

"Iran Parliament Approves Closure

 Of Hormuz Strait, A Key Oil Corridor"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Do you understand what $200 to $300 a barrel oil would do to 

the entire world economy, if it were available at all?

"Iran Will Have Nuclear Bombs; Israel Begs; Hormuz Strait"

Full screen recommended.

Mahmood OD, 6/22/25

"Iran Will Have Nuclear Bombs;

 Israel Begs; Hormuz Strait"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Lorain, Ohio, USA. Thanks for stopping by.

"The Cloak Of The Past..."

“The cloak of the past is cut from patches of feeling, and sewn with rebus threads. Most of the time, the best we can do is wrap it around ourselves for comfort or drag it behind us as we struggle to go on. But everything has its cause and its meaning. Every life, every love, every action and feeling and thought has its reason and significance: its beginning, and the part it plays in the end. Sometimes, we do see. Sometimes, we see the past so clearly, and read the legend of its parts with such acuity, that every stitch of time reveals its purpose, and a kind of message is enfolded in it. Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow. And in the tiny, precious wisdom that they give to us, even those dread and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be.”

- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”

"It May Be Necessary..."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.  

In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, 

so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." 

 - Maya Angelou

"We May Know..."

“We may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work that’s finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbor who’s crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes it’s even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. That’s enough for me, or it isn’t enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.”

- Fernando Pessoa

"15 Big Retailers Closing Down Stores Right Now"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 6/22/25

"15 Big Retailers Closing Down Stores Right Now"

"Here’s a fact that will stop you in your tracks: In the time it takes you to watch this video, two more retail stores will permanently close their doors in America. That's one store closing every 10 minutes during business hours across the country.

Rite Aid - the pharmacy you've probably bought aspirin from a hundred times - just filed for bankruptcy twice and is closing all 1,240 remaining stores. CVS deleted over 1,100 locations since 2022. Joann shut down every single craft store by May. GameStop eliminated 590 stores last year and is closing even more right now. These aren't small mom-and-pop shops. These are billion-dollar corporations with armies of analysts, decades of data, and access to unlimited capital. And they're all making the same calculation: physical retail is dying.

In 2025 alone, an estimated 15,000 stores will close across America - nearly double the 7,325 closures from 2024. When companies this big start abandoning real estate this fast, something fundamental has broken. What you're witnessing is the systematic dismantling of America's retail infrastructure. Let's go through this list now."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "16 Billion Passwords Hacked! Change Your Passwords Now, Protect Yourself ASAP!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/22/25

"16 Billion Passwords Hacked! 

Change Your Passwords Now, Protect Yourself ASAP!"

"Your personal data might already be on the dark web, and hackers are selling everything - from emails to passwords and even detailed personal information. This is the most serious breach yet! Protect yourself NOW by changing your passwords for everything: Facebook, Apple, Google, Android, email accounts, and more. Don’t wait until it’s too late - bad actors are targeting your bank accounts, pensions, and so much more."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really, Horrifyingly, Is"

"A Brief Disagreement"

Full screen recommended.

Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"

"A visual journey into mankind's 

favorite pastime throughout the ages."

"Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).] An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed 'approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war' to 'approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...'" The lower figure is more plausible but could still be on the high side considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD (wars and other man-made disasters with at least 300,000 and up to 66 million victims) claimed about 455 million human lives in total."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human

 race proved to be nothing more than the story of an

ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." 

- David Ormsby-Gore

And humanity just never, ever learns from it all...

"Warning: U.S. Cities On High Alert! Did America Just Start WW3?"

Jeremiah Babe, AM 6/22/25

"Warning: U.S. Cities On High Alert! 

Did America Just Start WW3?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "The U.S. Is At War Again! War Has Now Become Economic Policy"

Full screen recommended.

Gregory Mannarino, 6/22/25

"The U.S. Is At War Again! 

War Has Now Become Economic Policy"

Comments here:

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Has now become economic policy?! 

It's been economic policy forever, everywhere!

"War is Peace"

"War is Peace"

by Joel Bowman

“Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.”

~ Frank Zappa (1940 – 1993)

Buenos Aires, Argentina - "In the daily prize for “dumbest headlines,” the Wall Street Journal often finds itself standing, bewildered, upon the dais. Recently, and among tough competition, it climbed to the very top step. From the March 29 edition: "For Russia’s Economy, Peace Poses a Threat." "The country’s economic growth depends on the war in Ukraine, making a peace deal an economic risk for the Kremlin."

Yes, dear reader, the very same economy that was going to crumble “within weeks” under the weight of rearmament, the pressure of western sanctions, and the inimitable force of Ukrainian flags in BlueSky bios, faces a new and existential danger: the imminent outbreak of peace!

To be clear, this particular Note is not about the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, per se, the sophmoronic “Us vs. Them” paradigm of the perennially propagandized. After all, war does not determine who is right, as the old saying goes... only who is left.

Rather, we aim to make a broader point, about an ideology that begins with a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world really works... and ends up in precisely the reductio ad absurdum you would expect, advocating for that Orwellian motto:

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

Peace Beware! Indeed, the Journal makes the case for us perfectly, albeit inadvertently. Continued the braindead op-ed..."Against the odds, the Russian economy has weathered the war. The next economic storm on the horizon: peace."

Hmm...“A bloodbath”...“a quagmire”...“hell on earth”... we’ve heard war described a thousand different ways. But we’ve never heard peace portrayed as an “economic storm on the horizon.” Apparently, Benjamin Franklin got it face-about-arse when he observed, “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

And here we thought battle-weary soldiers on both sides, having been dragged through mud and trench by their spotless political leaders, yearned for “peace on earth and goodwill toward men.” That, granted something like a Christmas Day Truce, as was the case on the Western Front in 1914, sons and brothers might retire their bayonets and sing carols together, exchange gifts and even take up some impromptu football games in no-man’s land.

How... quaint! For years we labored under the naive delusion that, as Randolph Bourne had it, “war is the health of the state,” not – as seemed far from the case – the health of the citizenry, who were, after all, busy dying en masse. Turns out, the real danger lurked in peacetime all along, where a brotherhood of man serves one and other’s needs, works together toward common goals and produces value through the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services.

Mars above! Spare those young soldiers the “economic storm” of peace, brewing ominously on the horizon. If only they would stick to building tanks instead of Teslas...churning out artillery shells instead of Taco Bells...manufacturing F-16s instead of iPhone 16s...the world would be all the richer for it. If only the young cannon fodder knew the true horror of peacetime, they might remain on the frontlines, coughing and hacking in the blood and the muck.

Thus does the myth persist that it was WWII that finally dragged the US out of depression...by stealing resources – including precious human capital – from the private realm of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and mandating that its flow be redirecting toward death, tyranny and the pursuit of misery.

And yet, it’s not merely hundreds of thousands of room temperature corpses at stake here...there’s a whole warped philosophy that undergirds such empty-headed, anti-human thinking. Continued the establishment mouthpiece: "Throughout the conflict in Ukraine, massive government spending on the military has propped up Russia’s output and blunted the impact of Western sanctions. Weapons factories geared up, while outfits from clothing brands to bakeries retooled to make balaclavas and drones. The transformation has made Russia’s economy reliant on the war for jobs, wages and growth. Weaning it off that military sustenance, in a peace deal being pushed by President Trump, is an economic risk for the Kremlin."

Bombs and Baby Rattles: And here we get to the cold, dark heart of the matter, the mistaken belief that true economic vitality is somehow tied to raw production itself, regardless of the underlying human value of what is actually being produced. As if the state knows best what its citizens need, rather than those self same individuals.

Who needs winter clothes and baked goods when you can have balaclavas and drones instead? Forget summer holidays with the kids and clear skies overhead. Try bomb craters full of child soldiers and skies darkened with predator drones. Death and destruction is what the people really want, right?

Of course, if you view the world through the slanted lens of Keynesian economics, this all makes perfect sense. It was John Maynard Keynes who advocated countercyclical government stimulus, designed to boost aggregate demand and thereby raise gross domestic product. Never mind whether the end product was a bomb or a baby rattle. Here he is, waxing nonsensical in his General Theory... 

"If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing."

~ John Maynard Keynes, 

"The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (1936)

This is precisely the kind of cart-before-horse “reasoning” that inspires the misfiring neurons of neo-Keynesian eggheads like Paul Krugman, who once proposed an alien invasion as a magic elixir for the ailing economy. Spake the ex-Enron adviser in an interview on CNN, back in 2011: “If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months.”

Professor Paul then went on to suggest that, even if we discovered we’d been misled and the alien threat had been manufactured by the government to stimulate faux spending, a la Orson Wells’s classic, The Outer Limits, we’d all be better off for having spent the money…budget deficits, inflation and opportunity cost be damned!

Stimulating Keynes: To Keynes, Krugman et al. the worst government spending program of all... is no government spending program at all. Whether it’s imaginary extraterrestrial invasions or the very real tragedy of war, as long as GDP is bolstered and the relevant indicators are stimulated, it’s all to the good.

On the manufacturing front, there’s nothing like goosing production figures by making things that are literally designed to blow up. Talk about planned obsolescence! As for those employment numbers, what better than to keep the figures bolstered than by imposing nationwide conscription...than routinely decimating the entire workforce? The living work whether they want to or not...while the dead are too proud to show up on the unemployment rolls. Easy peasy!

In the end, war is Keynesianism gone wild, a voracious governmental ouroboros, feeding insatiably on its own tail, filling spreadsheets and trenches in roughly equal measure. When all you have is guns, everything starts looking like a duck…and when all you have is Keynesian economic quackery, everything begins to look like a government boondoggle-in-waiting.

And yet, this is the narrative that must be constantly pushed to “We, the People,” by “They, the Bureaucrats.” War “props up” the economy... rearmament is good for our industrial base... the real threat to us all – Russians and Ukrainians, Allies and Axis alike – is the sudden outbreak of peace. Far from posing “an economic risk for the Kremlin,” peace would be an economic boon for all nations currently wasting precious resources on the scourge of war. And that’s exactly why the establishment is eager to prevent it at all costs... up to and including the gravest cost of all. Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

o

Freely Download "Report from Iron Mountain on 

the Possibility and Desirability of Peace",

 by Leonard C. Lewin, here:

- https://www.1215.org/

"Trump Bombs Iran, Tehran Strikes Back! w/Mohammad Marandi, Ali Abunimah, Greg Stoker and More"

Full screen recommended.

Danny Haiphong, 6/22/25

"Trump Bombs Iran, Tehran Strikes Back! 

w/Mohammad Marandi, Ali Abunimah, Greg Stoker and More"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Judge Napolitano, "Trump Bombs Iran! w/Scott Ritter"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/22/25

"Trump Bombs Iran! w/Scott Ritter"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"WW3 Update: Iran, Here's What Happens Next - Pursuing Nukes, Attack U.S. Bases And Block Oil!"

Prepper News, 6/22/25

"WW3 Update: Iran, Here's What Happens Next -

 Pursuing Nukes, Attack U.S. Bases And Block Oil!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Endless War Is Not Meant To Be Won"

"Endless War Is Not Meant To Be Won"

by Nicholas Creed

"Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “peacetime president” authorized strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, so we are told. This global hyperreality show is relentlessly beamed into our minds via X accounts and Truth Social accounts.

Link to post.

Less than twenty-four hours prior, the Government of Pakistan - via X, recommended Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. 21st June 2025:

Link to post.

It’s a joke. It’s all a joke. Kit Knightly, writing for Off-Guardian, says out loud what many of us have been thinking, yet has seemed too audacious to suggest, up until now…"For Iran’s part, they are claiming the Fordow nuclear facility was barely damaged and “evacuated months ago”. Who can say what’s true? Any footage that emerges could be AI generated. Or cut scenes from a video game. Or videos of some other explosion in some other war.

Maybe the US really did drop bombs on real places and real people died. Maybe they dropped real bombs on empty places (after phoning ahead, we know they do that) and no one died. Maybe neither the bombs nor the places are real.

We know that governments of supposedly “enemy” countries work together to sell a grand lie. Iran not only went along with “Covid”, but was instrumental in early stages of the narrative. The Iranian government forced their people to get vaccinated, had lock downs and social distancing and vaccine passports.

We know none of the governments of the USA, Israel or Iran care about the lives of each other’s civilians. More importantly, we know none of them care about the lives of their own civilians either. If the US, Israel and Iran can work together to pretend to have a pandemic, then they can work together and pretend to have a war. If they are willing to poison and euthanize and deprive their own citizens in the name of a fake “pandemic”, then of course they are willing to burn, shoot and bomb foreign citizens in the name of an equally fake “war”.

A commenter from the above cited article aptly quoted Orwell’s fictional novel instruction manual Nineteen Eighty-four: “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.”

Is this how we are to have Agenda 2030 forced rather than foisted upon us? As a stage managed WW3 constrains shipping routes, energy production and supply, fertiliser, food production, and animal feed for livestock. Do we face imminent global economic degradation on a scale of hyperinflation induced supply shocks, and the subsequent forced wartime rationing of everything? Cyber-polygon war-gamed cyber attacks taking out critical infrastructure then blamed on [insert scapegoat state here]? 

Will the people cry out for salvation? Will that salvation come in the form of a central bank digital currency and universal basic income? Digital ID and face scanning just to connect to the internet? Make sure to have water, food, and a way to prepare it. Things will only escalate quickly from here on out."

- https://nicholascreed.substack.com/

"War With Iran"

A banner bearing a painting that represents various categories of the Iranian society is deployed against the facade of a building in Tehran, with a message that reads in Farsi: " we are all soldiers of Iran", on June 22, 2025.

"War With Iran"

We are opening Pandora's box.

by Chris Hedges

"War opens a Pandora’s box of evils that once unleashed are beyond anyone’s control. The warmongers who ordered the strikes by U.S. bombers on Iranian nuclear sites have no more of a plan for what comes next in Iran than they had in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria. European allies, whom Israel and Trump have alienated with these air assaults, are in no mood to cooperate with Washington. The Pentagon, even if it wanted to, does not have the hundreds of thousands of troops it would need to attack and occupy Iran - the only way Iran might be subdued. And the idea that the marginal and discredited Iranian resistance group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which fought alongside Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran and is viewed by most Iranians as composed of traitors, is a viable counter force to the Iranian government is ludicrous.

In all these equations the 90 million people in Iran are ignored just as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were ignored. They will not welcome the United States and certainly not Israel as liberators. Some may hate the regime, but they will resist. They don’t want to be dominated by foreign powers. A war with Iran will be interpreted throughout the region as a war against Shiism. Soon there will be retaliation. Lots of it. It will come at first with desultory missile strikes and then attacks carried out by elusive enemies on ships, military bases and installations. Steadily it will grow in volume and lethality. The death toll, including among the some 40,000 soldiers and Marines stationed in the Middle East, will mount. Ships, including aircraft carriers, will be targeted. We will, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, begin to lash out with a blind fury, fueling the conflagration we began. 

Those who lured us into this war know little about the instrument of war and even less about the cultures or peoples they seek to dominate. Blinded by hubris, believing their own hallucinations, they have learned none of the lessons of the last two decades of warfare in the Middle East. A war with Iran will be a self-defeating and costly quagmire, one more nail in the rotting edifice of the empire."

- https://chrishedges.substack.com/